Life After Death Row

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Since capital punishment was reinstated by the United States Supreme Court in 1976, 566 convicts have been executed. Eighty-two awaiting execution have been exonerated, about half of them during this decade. What follows are capsule accounts of death row's living alumni of the 1990's. CAITLIN LOVINGER

ERRORS IN COURT

James Albert Robison

CONVICTED -- 1977

RELEASED -- 1993

CRIME -- The contract murder of Don Bolles, a newspaper reporter who covered organized crime in Arizona. Prosecutors charged that Mr. Robison and another man, John Harvey Adamson, were hired by Max Dunlap, a land developer, who was also convicted. Mr. Adamson was given a 20-year sentence in exchange for testifying against Mr. Robison. But the state overturned the conviction in 1980 after finding that defense lawyers had been improperly denied the right to cross-examine Mr. Adamson. Mr. Robison was re-indicted for the Bolles murder. In the 1993 trial, he was acquitted of murdering Mr. Bolles, but later convicted of conspiring to kill Mr. Adamson. He is now in the witness protection program in Arizona.

Patrick Croy

CONVICTED -- 1979

RELEASED -- 1990

CRIME -- The shooting death of a policeman in California. The State Supreme Court overturned the conviction because of improper jury instructions made by the judge in his case. Mr. Croy was retried and acquitted after arguing self-defense.

Troy Lee Jones

CONVICTED -- 1982

RELEASED -- 1996

CRIME -- The murder of Carolyn Grayson in California in 1981. At his original trial, Mr. Jones's defense lawyer failed to speak with possible witnesses, obtain a police report or conduct a pretrial investigation. The State Supreme Court said the Jones case merited a new trial, and the prosecution dropped all charges.

Roberto Miranda

CONVICTED -- 1982

RELEASED -- 1996

CRIME -- The stabbing death of Manuel Rodriguez Torres in Nevada in 1981. Mr. Miranda, a Cuban, was offered a much milder sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, but refused it, insisting on his innocence and claiming that a man he knew had framed him. At trial he was represented by a lawyer with less than one year of experience. Overturning the conviction, the judge wrote that the lack of pretrial preparation by trial counsel . . . cannot be justified.

Charles Smith

CONVICTED -- 1983

RELEASED -- 1991

CRIME -- Murdering a woman during a robbery in Indiana. A companion, who claimed to be the getaway driver, testified against Mr. Smith in exchange for the dropping of all charges against him. The State Supreme Court overturned the conviction, citing ineffective counsel. Later evidence contradicted the companion's testimony.

Dale Johnston

CONVICTED -- 1984

RELEASED -- 1990

CRIME -- Murdering his stepdaughter and her boyfriend in Ohio, allegedly to keep them from blackmailing him with accusations of incest. The court of appeals later ruled that statements by Mr. Johnston used in the first trial could not be introduced at a retrial because they were taken while he was under hypnosis.

Federico Martinez Macias

CONVICTED -- 1984

RELEASED -- 1993

CRIME -- The murder of a man during a burglary in Texas in 1983. Mr. Macias's co-worker, who received immunity for testifying, said he drove him to the crime scene the night of the murder; a prison informant also said he heard Mr. Macias confess. In 1988, pro bono lawyers revealed evidence of inadequate trial counsel: two alibi witnesses had never been called to testify, an eyewitness had not been cross-examined and a 9-year-old girl's testimony proved to be false.

Benjamin Harris

CONVICTED -- 1985

RELEASED -- 1997

CRIME -- The murder of Jimmy Lee Turner, an auto mechanic in Washington state. Mr. Harris's lawyer consulted with him less than two hours and interviewed only 3 of 32 potential witnesses. After two unsuccessful appeals, Mr. Harris's conviction was overturned in 1994 because of inadequate counsel. The prosecution declined to retry Mr. Harris, instead saying that he was mentally ill and requesting that he be committed to a state hospital. On the condition that he pursue treatment, he was released.

Gregory Wilhoit

CONVICTED -- 1987

RELEASED -- 1993

CRIME -- Killing his estranged wife in her sleep in Oklahoma. An expert testified that Mr. Wilhoit's teeth matched bite marks on the body. The state appeals court later said that Mr. Wilhoit's counsel had failed to challenge that testimony, and was suffering from alcohol dependence and abuse and brain damage during his representation of appellant. At trial in 1993, 11 experts testified that the bite marks did not match, Wilhoit was acquitted.

Carl Lawson

CONVICTED -- 1990

RELEASED -- 1996

CRIME -- Killing 8-year-old Terrence Jones during a family dispute in Illinois. Although Mr. Lawson was found guilty, the defense lawyer assigned to him was later found to have been an assistant prosecutor at the time of his arrest. Another trial resulted in a hung jury; finally, Mr. Lawson was acquitted in 1996 and set free.

Clarence Dexter

CONVICTED -- 1991

RELEASED -- 1999

CRIME -- Murdering his wife in Missouri in 1991. Mr. Dexter's conviction was overturned in 1998 because his defense had failed to investigate any of the evidence, much of which pointed to a botched robbery; blood left at the scene did not match Mr. Dexter's.

Shareef Cousin

CONVICTED -- 1996

RELEASED -- 1999

CRIME -- The murder of MuAlfred Michael Gerardi during an armed robbery in Louisiana. Mr. Cousin, who was 16, said he was at a basketball game, and his coach testified that he was at the game. But his court-appointed lawyer advised him to plead guilty to four unrelated counts of armed robbery to gain the jury's sympathy. Mr. Cousin was convicted of first-degree murder and the four robberies. The State Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction because of improper evidence, but he is still imprisoned for the other convictions.

PROBLEMS WITH TESTIMONY

Clarence Brandley

CONVICTED -- 1981

RELEASED -- 1990

CRIME -- The rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in a Texas high school. Hair left at the crime scene implicated a white man, not Mr. Brandley, the only black custodian at the school. One of the two chief witnesses recanted his statements in a 1986 appeal hearing, saying the prosecution and the police had pressured him into implicating Mr. Brandley; the other witness confessed to the crime.

Ricardo Aldape Guerra

CONVICTED -- 1982

RELEASED -- 1997

CRIME -- Killing a police officer in Houston. After the state appeals were exhausted, the case went to a Federal district judge, who decided that the police and prosecutors had railroaded Mr. Guerra, a Mexican, onto death row.

Anthony Porter

CONVICTED -- 1983

RELEASED -- 1999

CRIME -- A double murder in Chicago witnessed by several people. His lawyer lost several appeals, but two days before his execution date last fall, Mr. Porter was granted a stay because of his limited mental capacity. When a journalism professor at Northwestern University, David Protess, assigned his students to investigate the case, several witnesses recanted and another man confessed.

Muneer Deeb

CONVICTED -- 1985

RELEASED -- 1993

CRIME -- Planning a 1982 triple murder in Texas carried out by three gunmen, who were later convicted. Mr. Deeb's conviction was reversed in 1991 because testimony had been improperly admitted from an inmate who said he heard Mr. Deeb confess while awaiting trial.

Robert Charles Cruz

CONVICTED -- 1981

RELEASED -- 1995

CRIME -- Ordering the contract killing of two people in Arizona. Although physical evidence was scant, Mr. Cruz was convicted mainly on the testimony of a participant in the killings who was granted immunity for his testimony. At the last trial, the jury foreman said, We all came to the conclusion that the state's main witness was an unreliable witness, a proven liar.

Steven Smith

CONVICTED -- 1985

RELEASED -- 1999

CRIME -- The murder of a jail warden, Virdeen Willis Jr., outside a Chicago tavern. Mr. Smith, whose criminal record already included two convictions for murder in 1964 and 1969, was convicted with the testimony of one eyewitness, who was later found to be closely tied to another suspect in the case. The State Supreme Court vacated Mr. Smith's conviction and barred prosecutors from trying him again.

Walter McMillian

CONVICTED -- 1988

RELEASED -- 1993

CRIME -- Killing an 18-year-old woman, Ronda Morrison, during a robbery in Alabama. He was arrested with another man, Ralph Myers, who agreed to testify against him in exchange for leniency. Mr. McMillian was placed in a death row cell before his trial even began. The judge overruled the jury's recommendation of life in prison and sentenced Mr. McMillian to die. An investigation by a lawyer revealed suppression of exculpatory information and perjury by all of the prosecution's witnesses, who later recanted their testimony.

Joseph Burrows

CONVICTED -- 1989

RELEASED -- 1994

CRIME -- The murder of William Dulan, an 88-year-old man, in Illinois. Although no physical evidence implicated Mr. Burrows, two witnesses testified against him. One later recanted to a newspaper, claiming coercion by prosecutors and the police. The other witness confessed to the crime.

Gary Gauger

CONVICTED -- 1993

RELEASED -- 1996

CRIME -- The murder of his parents in Illinois. At his arrest Mr. Gauger was interrogated for more than 16 hours without a lawyer. Asked to describe how he might have committed the murders, Mr. Gauger complied; his answer was construed as a confession. The same judge who sentenced him to death later overturned the conviction, finding little evidence to arrest Mr. Gauger in the first place. Last year, a gang member, on trial for several unrelated crimes, confessed to murdering Mr. Gauger's parents, with an accomplice.

Gary Nelson

CONVICTED -- 1980

RELEASED -- 1991

CRIME -- The rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Georgia. The prosecution presented an 8-year-old eyewitness and hair and semen samples. A volunteer group of lawyers later uncovered large amounts of suppressed evidence, including F.B.I. tests showing that the samples belonged to a white man (Mr. Nelson is black).

John C. Skelton

CONVICTED -- 1983

RELEASED -- 1990

CRIME -- Killing a former employee, Joe Neal, in Texas by rigging his pickup truck with dynamite. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said the prosecution had failed to link Mr. Skelton to the crime.

Curtis Lee Kyles

CONVICTED -- 1984

RELEASED -- 1998

CRIME -- The murder of Dolores Dye during a car theft in Louisiana. The United States Supreme Court, which overturned Mr. Kyles's conviction, ruled that the prosecution had withheld material evidence regarding a paid informant who said Mr. Kyles, an acquaintance, was the murderer. The informant had previously been suspected of the murder.

Adolph Munson

CONVICTED -- 1985

RELEASED -- 1995

CRIME -- The kidnapping and murder of a store clerk in Oklahoma while Mr. Munson was on work release after serving time for a 1964 murder. After nine years of appeals and an investigative report by the American Bar Association, the state's highest criminal appeals court overturned his conviction, finding that Oklahoma prosecutors had suppressed evidence that supported Mr. Munson's innocence, including the testimony of eyewitnesses who claimed the murderer was white (Mr. Munson is black). He was acquitted in retrial.

Jay C. Smith

CONVICTED -- 1986

RELEASED -- 1992

CRIME -- The 1979 murder of a teacher and her two children in Pennsylvania; the prosecution charged that Mr. Smith, a principal, acted with the victim's fiance, who was later sentenced to three life terms. In 1989, the conviction was reversed because of hearsay evidence and because the prosecution was found to have suppressed evidence that strongly implicated the fiance as the lone murderer. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court wrote that the prosecution had violated all principles of justice and fairness.

Bradley P. Scott

CONVICTED -- 1988

RELEASED -- 1991

CRIME -- Murdering a woman friend in 1978 in Florida. The document stating his whereabouts at the time of the crime had been misplaced; the police claimed to have an eyewitness who placed Mr. Scott at the crime scene. The Florida Supreme Court later ruled the evidence to be insufficient.

Sabrina Butler

CONVICTED -- 1990

RELEASED -- 1995

CRIME -- Killing her 9-month-old son, Walter, in Mississippi. Butler said the baby stopped breathing and she tried to resuscitate him before taking him to a hospital. She was later acquitted when a neighbor, who did not testify at the original trial, substantiated her story. Tests on the child's exhumed body pointed to kidney disease as a cause of death.

Andrew Golden

CONVICTED -- 1991

RELEASED -- 1994

CRIME -- Drowning his wife in Florida. Though the death was initially ruled accidental, Mr. Golden was later tried and found guilty. On appeal, the Florida Supreme Court said the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mrs. Golden's death resulted from the criminal agency of another person rather than by accident.

Randall Padgett

CONVICTED -- 1992

RELEASED -- 1997

CRIME -- The stabbing death of his estranged wife in Alabama. His conviction was based almost entirely on blood samples left at the scene, which were tested for DNA. It was later discovered that the F.B.I. crime lab had determined that the blood was not Padgett's, but Alabama prosecutors had suppressed that fact. Padgett was acquitted at a retrial.

WRONG DNA

Rolando Cruz

Alejandro Hernandez

CONVICTED -- 1985

RELEASED -- 1996

CRIME -- The 1983 rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico in Illinois. The men, who knew one another, were jointly tried, convicted and sentenced to death. They won a new trial after the State Supreme Court ruled that they should have been tried separately. After the second trial they were convicted again, with Mr. Hernandez getting 80 years. DNA tests in 1994 implicated a convicted sex offender, Brian Dugan, who, during a plea bargain, confessed to six murders, including Jeanine Nicarico's.

Kirk Bloodsworth

CONVICTED -- 1984

RELEASED -- 1993

CRIME -- The 1984 rape and murder of 9-year-old girl in Maryland. Mr. Bloodsworth resembled the composite sketch of the suspect; police said he gave information about the crime. The first conviction was reversed because the prosecution withheld psychiatric evidence, but he was convicted again in 1986, all the while pleading his innocence. If I'm dead, that's it, he told the judge at that time. You can't bring me back. In 1993 DNA from the scene was found not to match Mr. Bloodsworth's.

Verneal Jimerson

CONVICTED -- 1985

RELEASED -- 1996

Dennis Williams

CONVICTED -- 1979

RELEASED -- 1996

CRIME -- The 1978 abduction, torture and murder of a couple in a suburb of Chicago. The case against them and two others relied heavily on eyewitness testimony by one witness, Paula Gray, who changed her testimony several times, at one point admitting that she had implicated all four men in exchange for leniency in a different case against her. DNA samples failed to match the four men but implicated another man who later confessed to the crime.

Ronald Williamson

CONVICTED -- 1988

RELEASED -- 1999

CRIME -- Raping, strangling and mutilating a 21-year-old waitress, Debra Sue Carter, in Oklahoma in 1982. The conviction was based largely on strands of hair left at the crime scene and the testimony of a witness, Glenn Gore. In 1997, DNA samples from semen found at the crime scene were tested and found to match Mr. Gore's.

Robert Lee Miller Jr.

CONVICTED -- 1988

RELEASED -- 1998

CRIME -- The rape and asphyxiation of two women, Anne Laura Fowler, 83, and Zelma Cutler, 92, in Oklahoma in 1988. A judge dismissed the case after 10 years, saying the evidence was insufficient. DNA in a semen sample did not match Mr. Miller's DNA, but did match that of an already-convicted rapist.

Ronald Jones

CONVICTED -- 1989

CHARGES DROPPED -- 1999

CRIME -- The 1985 rape and murder of Debra Smith in Illinois. Mr. Jones signed a confession that stated that Ms. Smith had agreed to have sex with him for $10, then attacked him with a knife when he refused to pay her and was killed in the struggle. In the first trial, it was shown that Ms. Smith had no history of prostitution; Mr. Jones later said the police had beaten him. But it was not until 1997 that DNA tests used on the semen sample recovered at the crime scene proved that Mr. Jones was the wrong man. The charges against him, however, weren't dropped until May 1999 after prosecutors decided against a new trial. He remains in jail on unrelated charges.

Robert Hayes

CONVICTED -- 1991

RELEASED -- 1997

CRIME -- The rape and murder of a co-worker in Florida. Mr. Hayes was convicted largely from DNA evidence that was taken from hair found in the victim's hands. In 1995, the Florida Supreme Court overturned Mr. Hayes's conviction when it was revealed that the hair was from a white man; Mr. Hayes is black.

(Sources: Death Penalty Information Center; National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty; American Bar Association; Amnesty International; The Center for Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty, Northwestern University; MacArthur Justice Center; National Institute of Justice; Death Penalty Symposium: Prisoners Released From Death Rows Since 1970 Because of Doubts About Their Guilt, by Michael L. Radelet, William S. Lofquist and Hugo Adam Bedau in the Thomas M. Cooley Law Review, vol. 13, 1996.)

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